John Pettit

John Pettit (24 June 1807-17 January 1877) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-IN 8) from 4 March 1843 to 3 March 1849, preceding Joseph E. McDonald, and a US Senator from 18 January 1853 to 3 March 1855, succeeding Charles W. Cathcart and preceding Graham N. Fitch.

Biography
John Pettit was born in Sackets Harbor, New York in 1807, and he became a lawyer in 1831. He became a lawyer in Lafayette, Indiana in 1838, and he served in the State House from 1838 to 1839 and as a US district attorney from 1839 to 1843. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1843 to 1849. In 1850, he attended the state constitutional convention, and he went on to serve in the US Senate from 1853 to 1855, finishing Charles W. Cathcart's term. He supported the extension of slavery to Kansas, and stated that Thomas Jefferson's view that the "self-evident truth" that all men are created equal was instead a "self-evident lie." He went on to serve as a state court judge in Kansas and an Indiana Supreme Court judge, and he died in 1877.